White Boy Rick—From Crack to Cannabis—in 32 years

Drug Snitch

I confess my imagination is not sharp enough to make this up.

Richard J. Wershe, Jr., recruited by the FBI at age 14 to become a drug snitch, and who spent 32 years in prison after he was caught selling drugs.  

He was the title character in a movie kinda-sorta based on his life. He finally got out of prison and now he wants to be a marijuana entrepreneur.

Vice magazine reports Wershe has started a legal marijuana-producing company called The Eighth. He’s working with a Michigan cannabis company called pleasantrees.

Wershe told the magazine the Eighth stands for an eighth of an ounce of weed and the 8^th Amendment barring cruel and unusual punishment. An eighth of an ounce is a common amount when buying marijuana.

Knew the Dope Business at an early age.

Wershe became notorious as White Boy Rick. He was a ghetto white kid who knew some important black dope dealers.

The FBI and Detroit Police used him as a paid informant who passed along critical information about drug dealing on Detroit’s east side. In the process, they taught him how to be a drug dealer and, sure enough, White Boy Rick started dealing drugs.

He was busted with enough cocaine to trigger Michigan’s then-life-without-parole law. What kept him in prison long after murderers and rapists were paroled is the fact he snitched on the corruption of the late Gil Hill, a Detroit police Homicide inspector and later politically powerful city councilman.

Wershe told Vice he believes the government has no business telling adults what they can and can’t consume.

He makes a point when he describes the pharmaceutical giants responsible for the opioid crisis as “cartels.” Wershe: “There’s been 500,000 deaths, $27 billion in fines. And not one person has been incarcerated.”

He may do well pushing pot

Wershe might do well in the marijuana business.

 ‘Get grass endorsed by White Boy Rick himself.’

Wershe claims he hates the nickname, but not enough to avoid exploiting it to make money in Hollywood and the media and the marijuana marketplace. He assuredly knows the ‘White Boy Rick’ street name has marketing cachet in certain circles. Wershe was never a drug user and he says he doesn’t smoke pot but it appears he’s succumbed to another addition: he’s hooked on his fifteen minutes of fame. He can’t stay away from the spotlight and headlines.

For more on the saga of White Boy Rick Wershe, see my previous posts about him.

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Read Previous Articles About White Boy Rick

• Feds Respond to Notorious FBI Informant White Boy Rick’s Lawsuit Against Them
• White Boy Rick—From Crack to Cannabis—in 32 years
• James Dixon, FBI Agent Who Recruited White Boy Rick Wershe, Has Passed
• Ralph Musilli dead at 77
• White Boy Rick and Big Meech—Sometimes Crime Pays
• White Boy Rick—He’s Now A Free Man
• White Boy Rick—Soon to be Free
• White Boy Rick Wershe Denied Clemency
• Florida Clemency Board Takes White Boy Rick Wershe Case ‘Under Advisement’
• ‘White Boy Rick’ Film Fading at the Box Office